How Tests Are Damaging Children and Primary Education
The Mismeasurement of Learning How tests are damaging children and primary education Reclaiming Schools The Evidence and the Arguments In 2016 47% of pupils failed to reach the ‘expected standard’ in the KS2 tests (Reading, Writing, Mathematics). In effect, due to poorly constructed and impossibly difficult tests, nearly half our 11-year-olds left their primary school carrying a ‘failure’ notice. Twice as many August-born children (the youngest in the year) failed the phonics check as September-born (the oldest). The same occurred with KS1 SATs. In other words, many thousands of children were ‘failed’ because they were not old enough. Teachers had worked hard to narrow the attainment gap between pupils on free school meals and other pupils in the years up to 2015. The KS1 attainment gap doubled in 2016. There is a tide in the affairs of men, When taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures. Introduction The system of assessment In 2016, the concerns of imposed on English primary teachers, and parents, have schools is a failure. In 2016, it reached new heights. In an NUT has produced a situation in survey, more than 90% of which nearly half of all eleven primary teachers identified year olds were judged not ready fundamental problems with the for secondary school. But this assessment system. Parents, counter-intuitive outcome is not likewise, made a forceful its only problem.
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